EU lawmakers urge assessing DeFi, staking and NFT rules
EU lawmakers urge assessing DeFi, staking, NFT and crypto-lending rules as the European Parliament's economic affairs committee backed a nonbinding report asking the Commission to weigh expanding MiCA—while promoting euro stablecoins and warning against national rules that could fragment the bloc's crypto market. The resolution heads to a full Parliament vote expected July 7.
Key Takeaways
- The ECON committee tabled a report Friday urging the Commission to assess regulating DeFi, staking, NFTs and crypto lending under MiCA.
- The own-initiative resolution is nonbinding; if adopted July 7, it would set Parliament's policy position without changing law.
- Lawmakers also backed euro-denominated stablecoins, tokenization and consistent MiCA enforcement across member states.
- The push aligns with a Commission MiCA review consultation opened in May, ahead of a July 1 authorization deadline for crypto firms.
What did EU lawmakers recommend on DeFi and NFTs?
The European Parliament's Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) urged the European Commission to assess whether decentralized finance, staking, non-fungible tokens and crypto lending and borrowing should fall under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). The recommendations were included in a report tabled Friday for a plenary vote.
Drafted by Belgian Member of the European Parliament Johan Van Overtveldt, the own-initiative resolution outlines how Parliament wants Brussels to shape future digital-asset policy. Beyond the DeFi and NFT questions, it called for promoting tokenization across financial services and evaluating whether additional crypto activities need MiCA coverage.
Why does the Parliament report matter if it is nonbinding?
The report will next go before the full European Parliament, with a vote expected on July 7. If adopted, it would become Parliament's official position on digital assets—but it would not amend MiCA or create new legal obligations on its own.
Even so, the signal matters for industry planning. The committee warned member states against introducing national requirements beyond MiCA that could fragment the EU's digital asset market. It also urged consistent application of MiCA across the bloc to preserve a level playing field for crypto firms.
The stance on stablecoins has shifted. The report welcomed euro-denominated stablecoins under MiCA and encouraged their development to support the bloc's payment sector. Lawmakers argued they could complement tokenized commercial bank deposits and wholesale central bank digital currencies while enabling faster, cheaper cross-border payments.
How does this fit into MiCA and the July deadlines?
The Commission is already reviewing MiCA. In May, it launched a public consultation on whether the framework should expand to cover DeFi, staking, lending, NFTs and tokenized financial assets, while reopening debate over MiCA's ban on interest-bearing stablecoins.
Meanwhile, MiCA's transitional period ends July 1, after which crypto asset service providers generally must hold authorization under the regulation to continue operating across the EU. For more context on how regulatory shifts are reshaping the sector, see our Fintech & Crypto Alerts coverage.
Van Overtveldt first presented a draft in February before months of ECON negotiations. The committee-approved version broadened earlier MiCA-focused language to explicitly target gaps around DeFi and related activities still largely outside the framework, according to Cointelegraph's reporting on the vote.